The Sunday Struggles continued for Maryland baseball in its weekend finale against Ohio State in a deflating 13-8 loss. The Terps bested a Big Ten opponent for the third series in a row, but once again fumbled the sweep opportunity after taking the first two games.
Maryland starter Kyle McCoy, who only threw 3.1 innings, met his demise with a self-inflicted Ohio State walk party in his fourth and final frame. While the Maryland offense was sure to score during timely opportunities earlier in the series, no one could bring in any Maryland runs before the Buckeyes’ onslaught arrived in the middle innings. The Terps actually had more hits than their opposition as they boasted an 11-9 disparity, but left eight men on base to the Buckeyes’ four.
“Obviously, when you win a series on the road, it’s a good weekend,” Maryland coach Rob Vaughn said. “But we put ourselves in this situation three weeks in a row, and if you wanna win the league, you gotta finish these.”
The Terps held off the Buckeyes in two straight tightly contested battles on Friday and Saturday to take the series in the minimum amount of games. Jason Savacool propelled the visiting team to a 7-5 victory to get things going, and a small-ball eighth inning proved to be the difference in an even closer 3-2 win the very next day.
McCoy entered Sunday having lost his last two starts, both against Big Ten opponents. He only pitched four innings and allowed eight hits to both Iowa and Rutgers, but his last outing against the Scarlet Knights was cut short after a line drive nailed him in the face.
Maryland’s pitcher experienced his first inning struggles with Tyler Pettorini’s RBI double driving in Matthew Graveline, but he shook off the adversity and dealt multiple innings of sharp command. Back-to-back 1-2-3 frames followed as McCoy routinely forced weak contact out of the Buckeyes batters.
The Terps failed to create runs in the first few innings, but they had no shortage of baserunners. Four were left stranded in the first two frames, culminating with Graveline robbing Luke Shliger’s would-be home run at the fence.
The Buckeyes remained aggressive, fully getting to McCoy in the fourth. Pettorini smacked a leadoff hit, and then his teammates worked four straight walks, meaning two walked-in runs for Ohio State. McCoy was pulled for Andrew Johnson, but the reliever too toiled away on the mound. Instead of ill-timed walks, Johnson first let up a base hit, then committed a balk, then a sac-fly, and finally a three-run homer to Pettorini again to triple the score over his tenure from three to nine in just minutes. Just for good measure, Josh McAlister blasted a two-run shot of his own to bring the lead to a towering 11-0 in the fifth.
George Eisenhardt ensured that the Terps wouldn’t pick up any momentum after the Buckeyes created the massive lead, killing any sort of potential response by retiring the side to start the fifth. He contributed a strong outing after starter Blaine Robinson only pitched two innings, with Eisenhardt holding Maryland’s heads down for 3.1 turns.
The Terps first cracked the scoreboard in the sixth, when Jake Johnson came in to relieve Eisenhardt in a loaded bases situation. The sub walked in a batter when he hit Zach Martin on his first pitch, and an Elijah Lambros flyout brought in a second run to trail 11-2 in the sixth.
Even though the game was all but out of reach, the Buckeyes did their best to add whenever the Terps accomplished anything. Marcus Ernst doubled to bring home a twelfth run, improving the lead back to double digits. The Terps cobbled together their first impressive series of hits in the seventh and brought home three more runs thanks to Nick Lorusso and Eddie Hacopian, but another Ohio State home run, this time to Mitchell Okuley, again altered the score to a woeful 13-5.
Nick Lorusso’s three run hammer job in the top of the eighth brought the deficit to as close as five, but the Maryland scoring sputtered to a dispiriting halt as Ohio State closer Nolan Clegg put out all three ninth inning batters in order to hold the final score to 13-8.
“I know everyone looks at pitching, but realistically, the difference in that game is just the mental stuff,” Vaughn said. “We talked about mental mistakes, or not understanding when the big impactful play’s coming. Just not good enough to finish…you set yourself up to sweep a series on the road, you’ve gotta do a good job and finish it.”
The last leg of Maryland’s road trip will pit the Terps against George Washington, where the visiting team will look to take a midweek win on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
